ELC wrestlers take part in Luther camp

July 26, 2013

The Estherville Lincoln Central Wrestling team traveled to Decorah this past week to take part in a technique and competition camp at Luther College. The featured technician on the first night was two-time All-American from the University of Iowa, Ethan Lofthouse.

On day 2, the featured technician was was three-time National High School Coach of the Year, Jim Jackson from Apple Valley, Minn.

Day 3 featured the Luther College coaching staff, including Billy Huebner, Jeff O'Gara and former three-time All-American at Luther, Jeff Freidhof.

ELC wrestlers who attended the camp included: sophomore Kelly Clabaugh; junior Chase Bonner; and seniors Blake Gjerde, Billy Snyder and Jake Bortvit. ELC was paired with the team from West Marshall, who brought eight grapplers to the camp.

The camp consisted of three kinds of competition, team duals, team building challenges against other squads and an individual tournament on the final day.

The West Marshall/Estherville team seemed to mesh together, winning or tying in 4-of-6 Team Building Challenges and competing in the first pool with a 6-1 dual record. That placed them in the "Silver Bracket" for their final three duals, where they won all three competitions. This allowed the team to accumulate a total of 140 competition points during the camp, placing them in a tie for second place and earning them a third place finish in the Camp's Team Competition.

Individually the Midget grapplers competed very well against a lot of good wrestlers from Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois. Kelly Clabaugh finished the camp with a 7-8 record and a seventh place finish in the tournament.

Blake Gjerde was 10-2 and finished second in his bracket. Billy Snyder was 7-3 with a seventh place finish and was given "Wrestler of the Day" on Monday.

Jake Bortvit went 8-4 with a fourth place finish and Chase Bonner was 7-3 with a seventh place finish and was given "Wrestler of the Day" on Tuesday.

Camp and team results and photos are on Facebook on the Luther College Wrestling page. Anyone with a Twitter account can now follow the ELC wrestling team as well by following @ELCWRESTLING.